VietJoy

ATHENS - Greece has sent two letters to the United Nations explaining its objections to a maritime boundary deal between Turkey and Libya and asking for the matter to be taken up by the U.N. Security Council, the government spokesman said Tuesday.

The country's foreign minister also convened a meeting in Athens to brief political party leaders on developments. The deal, endorsed by Turkey's parliament last week, has fueled regional tension, particularly over drilling rights for gas and oil exploration.

The agreement would give Turkey and Libya access to an economic zone across the Mediterranean despite the objections of Greece, Egypt and Cyprus, which lie between the two geographically. All three countries have blasted the deal as being contrary to international law, and Greece expelled the Libyan ambassador last week over the issue.

Government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Greece sent one letter to the U.N. Secretary General and one to the head of the U.N. Security Council Monday night detailing Greece's position. He said the letters noted the agreement “was done in bad faith and violates the law of the sea, as the sea zones of Turkey and Libya are not neighboring, nor is there a joint maritime border between the two countries.”

The letters also note the deal “does not take into account the Greek islands” and their right to a continental shelf and exclusive economic zone. The agreement has also not been ratified by Libya's parliament, Petsas said, rendering it “void and unable to affect Greek sovereign rights.”

Neighbors Greece and Turkey, although NATO allies, have tense relations and are divided by a series of decades-old disputes, including territorial issues in the Aegean Sea, and have come to the brink of war three times since the 1970s, including once over drilling rights in the Aegean.